Hyde Park Pick: Bird

We appear to be living in an ever more uncertain world (I’m writing this on the eve of the US election, which is why things mayhap seem to be particularly precarious), but appearances can be deceiving. There is, I think, a personal sense of certainty that can be found, a balance which lies somewhere between reality, mystery, unpredictability and (whisper it) truth, a balance which also lies at the centre of Andrea Arnold’s fascinating new film Bird.

Arnold’s work, Wasp (2003), Fish Tank (2006), Red Road (2009), amongst others, has always been grounded in a frank depiction of the working class, those forced into poverty, those socially, financially and culturally marginalised by our top-heavy society and Bird is no different. Filming around the estates and coast of north Kent, close to Dartford where she grew up, what marks Bird out in particular, is how Arnold presents both fact and fantasy as equal partners, each one supporting the other.

Shining through the grit and the graft, the violence and desperate living is a central pivot of hope and life, joy and freedom - from below, looking up, in the wonder and precocious curiosity of 12-year-old Bailey and from above, looking down, in the enigmatic and unpredictable character of Bird. It’s the very definition of magical realism, similar in tone and vibrance to Alice Rohrwacher’s elusive and wonderful La Chimera (2023), which is further emphasised by the often direct, documentation of the character’s lives, filtered through a hazy, more wistful depiction of the world, captured by Arnold’s long-time cinematographer Robbie Ryan.

It’s a potent mix, where both chaos and vividness reign, a restless vitality which reflects both our lives and Bailey’s life and allows her (and us perhaps) the path to find a way through it all.

Bird is showing daily at HPPH from Friday 8th November. You can find times & tickets here.